Re: General knowledge for teachers in mathematics

Guess who wrote:
> On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 16:24:08 GMT, Gunnar G <debian@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >Todays topic: What can be considered to be "general knowledge" of
> >mathematics?
> But what you express below is not a general knowledge of mathematics,
> but an interest in the history of mathematicians. They are separate
> studies. Gauss studies mathematics, not Gauss.

Different, not separate. I don't think you can *understand* [tho'
you may be able to handle-churn enough to use] calculus [eg] without
going through some of the struggles that Newton, Leibniz, Euler, ...
went through in order to turn evanescent quantities and fluxions into
infinitesimals and differentials and then into limits. Similarly for
the number systems that we have, and for geometry, and for
mechanics, .... The notations that we use are derived from that
history, for example.

> Cerainly introduce the student to the developers of the works they
> are studying, but don't make it of paramount importance on an
> examination for example. [...]

Why not? OK, perhaps not for the *whole* exam, but why not for a
question or two? Why should some of this stuff not be formally part of
the syllabus?

--
Andy Walker, School of MathSci., Univ. of Nott'm, UK.
anw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

.

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